A sloppy India have plenty of problem areas to sort out as they go into the fourth one-day international against England in Manchester on Thursday, fully aware that another defeat could tilt the balance of the series heavily in favour of the hosts.
The Indians, trailing the seven-match series 1-2, have been a pale shadow of themselves and Rahul Dravid's men would need a huge slice of inspiration to restore parity in a series which has thoroughly exposed their fielding and bowling shortcomings.
Fielding has been the biggest worry for the Indians who have not only spilled catches but have also been pathetic in ground fielding and throwing. It is an area which needs drastic improvement if the visitors entertain hopes of winning the series.
Clearly, the tourists have their tasks cut out for the day-night encounter at the Old Trafford where the conditions would again suit the batsmen.
The Indians would also have to give a serious thought to their team composition and the batting order for the crucial game.
The team management has opted to go in with five specialist bowlers in the last two games but the strategy has not really paid dividends as England have managed to pile up big scores.
With no genuine all-rounder in the team, the five-bowler theory has weakened the batting considerably as was evident in the last match at Birmingham where India lost their last five wickets for just 29 runs.
The team management will spend considerable time in choosing the playing eleven as both the bowlers and the batsmen have not shown the desired consistency.
The Indians will also have to find the right person to bat at the vital number three slot. Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik have been tried out in that position in the matches so far but without much luck. It remains to be seen who will come out in that position on Thursday.
Captain Dravid has acknowledged that the team had paid a heavy price for poor fielding and the side needs to lift its standard by a few notches if they are to match England.
"England are out-fielding us more than anything else at this stage. Your fielders can sometimes make your bowlers look better than they are and we are not doing that," Dravid said.
"We didn't field as well as we can, that was a disappointing part of our game, and they [England] fielded beautifully," he said.
"It makes a big difference in a game you lose by 40 or 50 runs. You give away 20 and they save 20, that's the game. It's an area we need to improve," Dravid said.
It will be interesting to see what Dravid does if he wins the toss. Dravid opted to field first twice hoping to exploit the conditions, but the move backfired on both the occasions.
The Indians may prefer to set a target this time around and try to put the opposition under pressure by rattling up a mammoth total. But for that to happen, the top order batsmen have to fire on all cylinders.
If the Indian camp appears to be in disarray, there is no such problem for the hosts who have played well in all the three matches despite having a number of inexperienced players.
England captain Paul Collingwood has reasons to be satisfied with the show but can hardly afford to be complacent against the Indians who are known to fluctuate from the sublime to the ordinary in a matter of few minutes.
"We are getting scores of around 300 all the time and that shows we are improving. It is getting filtered into our bloodstream, but it is still early doors," Collingwood said.
"There are only three games gone so we won't get too carried away, but in many ways I was as satisfied with our performance," the skipper added.
England would again miss out on the overwhelming presence of Andrew Flintoff but the young pacemen in the team have shown that they can deliver the goods.
Both James Anderson and Chris Tremlett took wickets at crucial junctures to turn the tide in favour of the hosts.
The trio of Ian Bell, Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen seem to be enjoying against the toothless Indian bowling and needs to be contained by the visitors to draw parity in the series.
Teams:
India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Munaf Patel and Rohit Sharma.
England: Paul Collingwood (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Chris Broad, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitry Mascarenhas, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Tremlett.
